1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to feeders, namely apparatus for feeding animals selected from domestic pets, fish, chickens and wild birds.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
Pet feeders, such as the C20 Pet Feeder available from Pet Mate Ltd of Hersham, Surrey, which provide one or more meals for a pet at selected times, have proved popular with pet owners as they allow the owner to feed their pet at times when it may not be possible for the owner to be home to feed them directly. The quantity of food supplied is chosen by the pet owner. However such feeders can usually only provide one or two such meals at selected times. A cover opens at the selected time to expose a dish containing the food. Such feeders are particularly suitable for wet foodstuffs such as tinned dogfood or tinned catfood.
The embodiment of feeder described hereinbelow has arisen from our work seeking to develop a feeder system that is specifically configured for dispensing dry feed to pets, chickens, cage birds, fish or wild birds over an extended interval and in metered amounts.
Feeding systems for providing dry feed from a hopper have been proposed previously both for agricultural livestock and for domestic pets, including fish in an aquarium. Prior such pet feeders tend to be difficult to clean.